Smartphone Share Stabilizes In US, Competitive Only At Margins

The US smartphone market seems to have reached a kind of homeostatic equilibrium. According to many months of comScore data, Android hovers at around 52 percent penetration, while the iPhone has a 42 percent share.

Windows Phones own just over 3 percent of the market and “other” is just under 2 percent. It seems unlikely that Windows will make further gains in the absence of a significant breakthrough of some kind. And BlackBerry continues its painful slide into the abyss. 

Absent radical developments, platform loyalty is such that only a small percentage of users appear to be up for grabs, although there is some switching between Android and iPhone and vice versa. Where there’s some marginal competitive volatility is among Android handset makers, though Samsung continues to dominate that group.

Operating system market share doesn’t tell the whole story however. For example, email platform provider Movable Ink has data that now show 67 of emails are opened on mobile devices. But Android users, despite their superior market share, are missing in action.

According to the firm’s quarterly “U.S. Consumer Device Preference Report,” nearly 57 percent (of that total 67 percent) happen on iOS devices. In other words less than 10 percent of mobile email opens happen on Android devices, if the company’s data are accurate.

When it comes to apps, comScore data show that the top apps list is dominated by a combination of Google and Facebook apps. There are a few independents such as Pandora, Pinterest, Twitter and Amazon in there. However it’s mostly Facebook vs. Google.

Except at very bottom of the list, where there has been some movement, this ranking has been largely the same for the past year or so.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.

(Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)